


Perception

by fishfingersandjellybabies



Series: Talon!Damian AU [14]
Category: Batman (Comics)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-19
Updated: 2015-08-19
Packaged: 2018-04-15 11:59:28
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 930
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4605903
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fishfingersandjellybabies/pseuds/fishfingersandjellybabies
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Damian thinks he sees something, and crumbles completely. Jason and Cass wished they weren't so used to the occurrence.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Perception

**Author's Note:**

> prompt from tumblr for 1000 followers.
> 
> The flashback portion is kind of implied, but his flashback is of a time when Owlman was coming at him in a hallway to punish him for something. This is probably midway between when Jason rescued him and when he regained his memories, and he’s still under the 24/7 supervision thing. Bruce and the others were at WE, Alfred was probably out grocery shopping or in the garden. They wait in Bruce’s room for everyone to arrive - Damian sort of calms down/exhausts himself in the meantime - and when they do, Damian clings to Bruce. Dick initiates a dogpile and patrol is cancelled to watch the National Dog Show that was airing on tv. I just like to imagine Cass is the number one big sister and very doting on Damian upon his return in this AU.

Jason came running at the sound of glass shattering on the floor, of someone hitting the ground, of a door slamming.

As he came to the landing at the top of the stairs, he immediately saw Cass pushing herself up from her side, diving towards a nearby door.

“Bad.” She said, shaking at the doorknob, pressing her ear against the door. She glanced up at Jason. “Very bad.”

“What’s wrong?” Jason asked, stepping carefully around the shards of glass on the floor, the liquid pooling around them. A drink of water, he knew, one he’d just given Damian before he and his elder sister made their way up the staircase.

Cass shook her head, ducking to the ground, to her hands and knees to peek under the door. “Don’t know. Saw something? He…pushed me.” A pause. “I think to…to get me out of the way. _Protect_ me.”

Jason reached out, grabbed the doorknob. Locked.

_Shit._

“Kid!” And it was a bad idea, but he didn’t have another choice. If they were unlucky, the kid already bolted out the window. Was probably already at the outer wall of the grounds. But if they weren’t, the kid was still inside. But the only way to know was to say one thing, the one thing the child, for some reason, never wanted to hear. “Damian!”

“No!” Came the muffled reply. Not too muffled, though, and that was oddly a relief, because it meant he wasn’t near the window.

“On the floor.” Cass confirmed, standing back up, trying the door handle one more time. “Right inside.”

So no battering-ram-kicking the door down. Got it.

“Well, then.” Jason sighed, pulling his knife from his pocket. “It’s a good thing I never forgot how to pick a lock.”

Cass raised a silent eyebrow, but stepped back anyway. He knelt down, twitching as the water puddled there seeped up through his jeans. Below the clicking noises of his knife slipping, he could hear the haggard breath of his brother, the staccato gasps of a child who was petrified.

“In and out, kiddo.” Jason called, noticed the shadow under the door shift. “In, count to three, out, count to five.”

He doesn’t know if Damian did it or not. Didn’t much care either, as two seconds later he heard the distinctive click against the doorframe. The door shifted, and he didn’t get a chance to stand before Cass was pushing the barrier open, jumping into immediate action.

Damian was collapsed on the floor three feet in front of him. On his knees, face curled to the ground, hands covering the back of his hair. He looked almost like a cat, or a coiled dragon, his skinny spine near grotesque, with the ridges outlined by his skin so badly it showed through his t-shirt. They looked like they were about to pop out, all made worse when he inhaled, and those bones pushed further up, became sharp teeth.

Cass was at his side instantly, running her hand gently along those ridges. Jason was almost surprised they didn’t cut her.

“Here…” Damian wheezed, squeezing his hair tighter. “He’s _here_ …I _saw_ him.”

Jason sighed again.

_Double shit._

“It’s for my punishment. He’s here to lay down my _punishment_ , just like he _used to_ , just like the _last time_.” A shudder rippled across his shoulders. “I abandoned him. I’m a _deserter_ and he’s gonna-!”

Cass didn’t let him finish. Gripped his sides and yanked him out of his fetal position. Pulled him gently into her lap. Damian’s hyperventilation kicked back into overdrive, and as Jason stood, Cass put a hand on his chest, began mimicking Jason’s earlier instructions herself, until Damian followed suit.

Jason glanced down the hallway, towards the shadows the setting sun was creating through the windows and doorways. And he could see it, could see Damian’s line of thinking. After all, the child was always on edge, for this very reason. Out of the primal fear that Owlman will come here. Will return to take back his Talon, by any means necessary.

So yeah, he could see it. Could see the shape of a masked man in those shadows, of course.

And it was a stale thought, reiterated by someone in this stupid house at least once a day.

But Owlman was going to pay for this.

And right now, Jason’s greatest wish was that he was the one who got to collect.

He glanced back to the duo on the floor, watched as Cass silently wiped an errant tear from Damian’s face, held his head against her neck.

“Bruce?” She asked softly, ducking down to look into Damian’s glassy eyes. Damian gulped, gave a nod.

“And Richard.”

“Okay.” She instantly glanced up at Jason in expectation. Jason let out a mockery of a groan as she bundled Damian up into her arms, took him bridal-style into the hall. He watched them for a moment, as she carried him further towards the shadows, as his hand dug into her neck in anticipation. He watched as she suddenly veered off into a bedroom.

Into Bruce’s bedroom.

He snorted a laugh, shaking his head as he walked around the mess of the shattered cup remaining in the hallway. He’d get that in a minute, he thought as he pulled the phone from his pocket, held it against his ear, but first-

“This is Wayne.”

“You and Goldie, and probably Timbo, are going to want to come home.” He said simply, trotting down the stairs. “ _Now_.”

-it wouldn’t hurt to check the security around the grounds one more time.

**Author's Note:**

> [Other Talon!Damian stories](http://fishfingersandjellybabies.tumblr.com/search/talon%21damian)   
> 


End file.
